


Finding Family

by jailbirdwriting



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 22:07:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12466956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jailbirdwriting/pseuds/jailbirdwriting
Summary: Lena lingers on the front porch of the Danvers’ house, desperate to find a way to spend longer in Kara’s presence. The blonde is leaning up against the doorframe watching her new friend and wondering what took them so long to meet.“Thank you, Kara.” Lena says, smiling and looking at her feet.“You mentioned that, you don’t have to go you know, I know Eliza will happily cook for five!”“Oh, no, Kara, thank you, but my mother will be very unhappy if I’m not back tonight.” Lena can’t stop the way Kara’s name rolls of her tongue again and again. She takes in a deep breath desperately trying to slow the rate of her heart so she won’t faint.





	1. Chapter One

Lena lingers on the front porch of the Danvers’ house, desperate to find a way to spend longer in Kara’s presence. The blonde is leaning up against the doorframe watching her new friend and wondering what took them so long to meet. 

 

“Thank you, Kara.” Lena says, smiling and looking at her feet.

 

“You mentioned that, you don’t have to go you know, I know Eliza will happily cook for five!” 

 

“Oh, no, Kara, thank you, but my mother will be very unhappy if I’m not back tonight.” Lena can’t stop the way Kara’s name rolls of her tongue again and again. She takes in a deep breath desperately trying to slow the rate of her heart so she won’t faint. 

 

The blonde nods, and for the tiniest moment, Lena thinks she sees disappointment flicker across her face before it’s replaced with that blinding smile and a shrug. 

 

“I can’t wait to see Mr. Everett’s face tomorrow when we kill this presentation,” Kara says excitedly. She’s bouncing on the balls of her feet and Lena would find it adorable if she wasn’t trying so hard not to pass out. 

 

A shout from inside the house disturbs the teenagers from where they’re slowly leaning closer and closer together and Lena takes a step back. 

 

“Goodnight, Kara. I’ll see you on Monday,” her voice tilts upwards at the end of the sentence turning it into a question she hoped it wouldn’t.

 

Kara grins and pulls Lena forwards and into her arms, squeezing her tightly in a hug and holding tight for a few seconds. 

 

Lena pulls back after a breath too long and heads down the steps towards her car. She slides into the front seat and rests her forehead against the steering wheel in an attempt to pull herself together before putting the car into reverse and backing out of the driveway and into the street. 

 

She flicks the radio on, a small smile coming to her lips as she reflects on the evening. Lena has only been in Midvale for a few months, hanging out with Kara even less, yet she already feels lighter and happier than she ever did in London, Paris or Metropolis. 

 

She was sure as soon as school started that Kara would realise how much of a nerd she was and their blooming summer friendship would shrivel into non-existence, but Kara had merely laughed at the black SUV she’d driven up in and pulled her along to their first class. Shaking her head, Lena takes a left at the intersection, not even noticing the truck coming her way. 

 

“Lena, open your eyes.” 

 

Lena breathes in deeply, screwing her eyes tighter. This has to be a dream. She’s dreaming. She feels her body shift in someone’s arms and flinches. 

 

“Lena!” Kara’s voice is panicky, “open your eyes!”

 

Kara’s voice? Kara? Lena is confused but her eyes snap open all the same and there she is, blonde hair swept across her face, blue eyes inches from her own, full of concern. 

 

“Kara,” Lena manages to choke out, before her throat seeps to close up, eyes going wide remembering the intersection, the truck. 

 

“Lena? Are you okay?”

 

Her eyes dart back to Kara’s and she tries to form words, tries to say anything other than the opening and closing of her mouth. She traces Kara’s face with her eyes, takes in her appearance, apart from the tattered shirt she’s relatively in one piece. 

 

Lena takes a minute to evaluate her current state. She wiggles her fingers, then her toes. Kara’s arms are still wrapped around her tightly but she works out that apart from her splitting headache she seems to be okay. 

 

“My head,” is all she manages to croak out before there are a warm set of hands either side of her face. 

 

She flinches as images flash through her mind of trucks rushing towards her and hands reaching out to her. 

 

“Kara, please,” She murmurs under her breath.

 

“Shhhh,” Kara whispers in her ear, “I’ve got you, stop squirming.”

 

She’s lifted almost effortlessly as Kara stands. _An adrenaline rush is a sudden burst of energy from an increase in the hormone and neurotransmitter adrenaline, increased heart rate and blood pressure are common symptoms._ Lena repeats this to herself over and over in a way of explaining how Kara is carrying her back up the road at pace without even breaking a sweat. 

 

She moves to rest her head firmly on Kara’s shoulder and feels the blonde shift her a little before a pair of lips touch her temple, “almost, Lena, we’re almost there”.

 

Lena lets her eyes slide closed as the familiar house comes into view just above the crest of the hill in the road and blackness surrounds her. 

 

_“Almost there Lena!” Lex cries as they race towards the ocean._

 

_The flight back from Rome had been filled with turbulence and very little sleep and the Luthor siblings had been eager to get out and stretch their legs the second the plane had landed._

 

_She pushed herself harder and faster towards the waves, getting in front of her brother before turning round to grin victoriously back at him._

 

_“I won, Lex!” She shouted up the beach where he was leaning with his hands on his knees and breathing heavily._

 

_Grinning in victory, Lena threw herself into the waves and let the current take her further and further with each stroke. Turning back towards the shore she laughed as her older brother attempted to catch up but didn’t see the person swimming behind her._

 

_“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” She asked quickly._

 

_“Am I okay, are you okay?” The stranger asks, surprisingly warm hands coming to grasp her biceps and guide her closer to the shore._

 

_A laugh bursts from Lena’s lips at the absurdity of this situation. Not only a day into living in this town and she’s already managed to crash into a complete stranger._

 

_They make it back to the beach with relative ease and the beautiful stranger is still grinning at her. When they step onto land the blonde thrusts out her hand with an even bigger smile._

 

_“I’m Kara, I live in the house just up there, what’s your name? I haven’t seen you around much before?”_

 

_“L-lena. Luthor. I’m Lena Luthor. Just arrived, literally!” She finds herself returning the grin Kara is offering her and reaching out to shake her hand._

 

“Lena? Can you hear me?” This time it isn’t Kara’s voice that wakes her, but a new one. She opens her eyes and then shuts them again quickly in the bright light of the hospital room. 

 

“Well hello, Miss Luthor, how are you feeling?”

 

Lena tries to open her eyes again and is more successful the second time around. Standing by her bed is a woman dressed in a lab coat and a brightly patterned dress. She glances down at the chart in her hands before removing her glasses and smiling at Lena. 

 

“Where’s Kara?” Lena questions, although she doesn’t actually mean for it to come out her mouth. 

 

“Yes, she’s right outside, hasn’t left since her family brought you in. She’ll be very happy to know you’re awake.”

 

“I have to see her,” Lena pulls back the covers and attempts to make sense of all these wires keeping her captive. 

 

“Lena, you shouldn’t get out of bed, you have a-“

 

“Concussion,” Lena finishes, “a mild one, by the feel of it. And some external bruising. But I’m fine, I suffered no blood loss and nothing is spinning. The lights are not bright enough to tell me that my pupils are dilated…” She pushes up onto her feet, tasing herself. “I’m sure I’ll be discharged today,” she says blandly, looking curiously at the doctor who is shaking her head and smiling. 

 

“Yes, you probably will.”

 

Lena pushes the door to her room open and steps out into the hallway with no regard to what she’s currently wearing. Across the hall, in another room, she sees a pair of shoes that can only belong to Kara sticking out of s dividing curtain. Lena smiles at the pale blue converse, the laces tied over and over again to stop Kara having to stop and tie them. She’s never been so happy to see such an awful pair of shoes in her life. She rushes towards the door, but before she can pull back the curtain and throw her arms around her saviour, she hears a voice that stops her dead and sends chills down her spine. 

 

“Driving around your neighbourhood after dark, it’s no wonder my daughter winds up unconscious in a hospital bed,” Lillian Luthor’s voice cuts sharply through the air like a knife. Lena closes her eyes.

 

“Yes, ma’am” comes Kara’s voice, and she sounds small and defeated.

 

“You will stay away from my daughter, do you understand? You’ve already caused enough trouble.”

 

There’s an extended silence, in which Kara taps her shoes against the ground in a jerky motion in a way that tells Lena she’s growing too overwhelmed, likely to drive Lillian mad. 

 

“Lena is my friend,” Kara says so softly that Lena finds herself stepping closer involuntarily “I never meant for her-“

 

“Well she did, Kara.” Lillian’s voice drips with fake sympathy and it makes Lena want to throw up. “She got hurt, you nearly got your _friend_ killed. If she really is your friend, I know I can trust you to do the right thing,” she spaces these last words out slowly, as if talking to someone hard of hearing. 

 

There’s a longer silence now, Lena urges herself to move forward and protest, then, Kara’s voice, so quiet and close to tears that Lena has to suck in a deep breath.

 

“Yes ma’am.”

Lillian Luthor whips back the curtain and strides out into the hallway, “Lena! You’re awake, but I’m almost certain you should not be out of bed just yet. Come on, let’s get you back, and see what the doctor says about getting you home.”

 

With her mother’s grip on her upper arm so tight it feels like it might break the skin, Lena turns back to her own room. 

 

But not before she’s seen Kara, standing along by the medical bed, hands balled into fists, tears rolling silently down her own cheeks.


	2. Chapter Two

“Kara! I swear if you don’t get out of bed right now, I’m driving to school on my own and your Kryptonian ass can run there by itself!” Alex shouts from the doorway of her sister’s room. The lump in the middle of the bed doesn’t move. 

 

“Mmmm I’m up! I’m up!” Kara says, a blonde head of hair emerging from the comforter in the middle of the bed and Alex can’t help but smile. One of Kara’s feet is hanging off the edge of the bed and there are clothes strewn all over her room. 

 

She moves forwards and yanks the whole comforter off the bed and pulls it with her out of the room. 

 

“Noooo! Alex! That’s mean!” Kara wails as if she’s been shot, curling into the foetal position, trying to keep as warm as possible. 

 

“Get _up,_ Kara! I’m not kidding about running to school!” She yells from the bathroom between their rooms. 

 

She can’t really blame Kara for not wanting to face the world today after her brief interaction with Lillian Luthor last week and stomps down the stairs to start getting breakfast ready for the two of them. 

 

Ever since they were younger and Kara had just arrived, breakfast was something they both enjoyed. Time to just be sisters and recount on the previous day, after the consumption of coffee of course. Alex knew the effect the recent outburst had had on her sister, the normally bubbly Kryptonian becoming angrier and quieter, more like the girl that had just arrived who was confused at the loss of her people. 

 

The repetitive motion of putting out Kara’s favourite cereal and orange juice sets her at ease and their morning continues much the same as any other and both of them end up rushing out the door almost late for class, an occurrence that had become more and more frequent since they had to start getting themselves up. 

 

Kara blinks hard and her hands curl into fists in an attempt to stop the memories come flooding back to her as she steps into the corridor. She manages not to cry by sheer force of will. She refuses to let a bully like Lillian Luthor get the better of her even if she did take away her best friend. 

 

“Kara,” a hand touches her shoulder and she spins round so rapidly she has to reach out to hold the waist of the person who called her name to stop them falling over. Lena takes several steps back, startled by the fierce look on her friend’s face. 

 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

 

Kara stares, unable to say anything. She blinks and rubs her eyes to make sure this is real, she even pinches her arm. Her brain seems unable to decide on which emotion she should be feeling the strongest. 

 

“What are you doing here?” Kara asks much more harshly than she meant to, but she decides it’s okay because it masks the tears threatening to break through at any second. 

 

“I-I go to school here,” Lena says blankly.

 

“You haven’t been here all week,” Kara says, deciding that anger is the safest emotion, even if it’s not the truest. She’d been ready to confront Lena, to tell her her mother was wrong. She’d been ready to fight for her friendship but this confidence had waned the first day and by the seventh she’d almost given up. 

 

“That’s true, I was confined to mandatory bed rest because of my concussion. It was the necessary action because-“ But Kara puts up a hand and Lena falls silent, watching Kara shuffle through several emotions she’s struggling to read. 

 

“I did the presentation for both of us. In case you ever showed up again,” Kara says abruptly, shifting from foot to foot. “We got a B because I fucked up the part about smurfs or something.” 

 

Lena thinks she hears her mumble something about stupid humans but decided to forget it and focus on the fact that her friend is actually speaking to her. 

 

She smiles faintly, “Serfs, Kara, and don’t swear.” 

 

“Yeah, those. So you’re stuck with a B unless Mr Everett will change your grade. Just like you were stuck with me until your mother could come in and save you.” 

 

Lena’s mouth drops open, but Kara turns away and heads down the corridor towards her next class, regret thick in her throat. She doesn’t even turn back when she hears Lena call her name, her voice thick with tears. 

 

Through the doors, up the main corridor towards her locker, Kara punches the metal door so hard there’s a fist shaped dent. She ignores it. 

 

Lena doesn’t see Kara again until study hall at the end of the day. She’s working alone at a desk in the corner, and as Lena draws closer she feels panic wash over her. Although to everyone else, Kara looks as though she’s concentrating, Lena can’t help the lines of pain that have etched themselves onto her strong features. Or the way in which she holds herself in the chair, as though she might break it if she moves the wrong way. Making up her mind in an instant, Lena strides across the room and puts her books down next to her first friend in this town, pulling up a chair. Although Kara’s jaw clenches and her hands curl and uncurl in her lap, she does not look up at Lena or move her things away. 

 

Lena states at her, baffled and awestruck at the same time. She thinks of the beautiful stranger from the beach, her beautiful stranger. How can she keep so much hidden? Lena looks up at the severe looking teacher making sure everyone stays silent and for the first time in her life, Lena breaks a rule. 

 

She slides a piece of paper out of her bag and scribbles something down on it before sliding it along the table to Kara. 

 

**_my mother does not speak for me._ **

 

Kara pauses for a moment before adding her own handwriting to the scrap of paper.

 

_she’s right._

 

**_Kara, you saved me._ **

 

 _You shouldn’t have needed saving._ Kara shoves the last note at Lena with such ferocity, that Lena can’t bring herself to leave her response at just a note on paper. She reaches across the table to where Kara’s clenched fist has been resting since she sat down and takes it in her own, feeling indents of where her fingernails have been digging in all day.

 

“I’m not just talking about last Sunday,” she says, and Kara looks at her for the first time since that morning, Lena can’t help the hopeful smile that blooms across her face looking into those blue eyes. 

 

“Miss Danvers!” the teacher has come up to their table, eyes stern, “detention after school, there’s no talking in study hall!”

 

“Oh! No! It was all my fault. I was the one talking.” Lena surprises herself at how easily she admitted to this infraction. 

 

“Well then, detention for both of you. See if we can’t get you in the habit of following rules,” the teacher says, as she stalks down the aisle away from them. 

 

Lena glances at Kara and shrugs, starting to pull her hand away, but Kara doesn’t let go. When Lena looks up at her, she has gone back to reading her book, a small smile playing at her lips. 

 

Lena feels as if she’s won something. 

 


End file.
